I bought a puck of Art of Shaving Sandalwood, the old formula with tallow and while the scent is hardly sandalwood, the performance is outstanding. So I looked through my soaps, looking for a tallow base and all that I have is Tabac, which is another outstanding performer.
I want more...
What are your feelings concerning this beefy ingredient?

Some of my favorite soaps have tallow, but I don't feel that is an indispensable ingredient to make a great soap. MdC is probably one of the shiniest examples.
That being said, I have yet to find a soap with a truly exceptional glide that is missing tallow in the ingredient list.

Tallow is no magical ingredient. There are good soaps and bad soaps that both have tallow. I find most of the soaps I prefer are tallow-free, but I'm certainly no vegetarian. So I didn't really have a proper answer in the poll.

Admittedly there are good and bad tallow soaps, just like everything else, but among the vintage soaps that I tend to use, the tallow ones - Penhaligon's, Floris, Trumper's, Harris - clearly are the best for me.

Yeah, good and bad in all formulations, but old tallow soaps are unbeatable in performance.
Recently went through artisan tallow based soaps, whilst good, not as good as vintage tallow ones. Obligatory YMMV and all that

I am actually a fan of both tallow and veggie soaps. Based on my experiences, I judge a soap strictly on its performance, with its ingredients a second consideration. There was a time when I obsessed over the detailed ingredients, but that was under the context of searching for the ingredient that caused my skin to react. As far as preference, I certainly don't gravitate towards one or the other. Tallow is definitely NOT an ingredient that I seek, however if I see it listed part of me assumes/expects it to be good. This assumption is not as strong with veggie soaps primarily because their formulas differ so much and there is no focus on a single ingredient such as tallow. *I take that back...I think I'd be a little suspicious if I saw a veggie soap without Stearic Acid

The best soaps in my den are probably split 50/50 between veggie soaps and tallow soaps. On any given day, I am equally likely to reach for, or purchase, a tallow-based soap or a veggie soap.

I have a mixture of tallow and veg soaps in my rotation. I have had more better experiences with tallow based soaps than the veg based ones. There are some very nice veg based soaps though. So yes, I look for tallow as an ingredient. There is just something about the feel of a tallow soap on my face and the type of slickness it provides.

I love my Tabac and for those that do too you might want to try their after shave.

Tallow has also been used in stage makeup and the old Ben Nye tubes have an odor very similar to the AOS Sandalwood. I was a bit concerned when I received my puck. Even though it was still shrink wrapped, I have the sensation that its shelf life is limited. I am also considering adding a few drops of an after shave such as Captain's Choice Bay Rum to hide the earthy smell of the tallow.
Admittedly, it is a great performer. I had one of the smoothest shaves yesterday in memory.

Excellent responses and there is no right or wrong answer, just preference.

Personally I prefer a tallow based shaving soap. A good, high quality beef tallow used in the proper proportions with other vegetable based oils and butters in a shaving soap is hard to beat. There is a creaminess and an elasticity to the lather that an all vegetable soap can never achieve. "Luxurious" is the word that springs to mind when thinking of a well made tallow shaving soap.

Tallow in a bath & body bar soap is also hard to beat. It creates a hard and creamy bar with excellent conditioning properties. Many experienced soap makers profess quite a love for a tallow based bar soap, myself included. However you will find the majority of artisan bar soaps made with all vegetable oils and butters due to the dynamics of that particular market, again, myself included. It seems that most consumers of artisan bar soaps are more of a "all natural/vegan/vegetarian" crowd and they balk at seeing beef tallow on the ingredient list.

I'm gearing up to a release a line of tallow based bath & body soaps as I can't ignore the wonderful qualities of a tallow based soap any longer. I plan to combat the stigma somewhat by using the term, "sodium tallowate" on my ingredient label. Of course I won't be marketing this as a vegan/vegetarian soap.

Again this just a personal preference but I consider myself firmly in the "Yes, I love tallow soaps" camp!

(08-16-2014, 07:25 AM)ColdRiverSoap Wrote: Excellent responses and there is no right or wrong answer, just preference.

Personally I prefer a tallow based shaving soap. A good, high quality beef tallow used in the proper proportions with other vegetable based oils and butters in a shaving soap is hard to beat. There is a creaminess and an elasticity to the lather that an all vegetable soap can never achieve. "Luxurious" is the word that springs to mind when thinking of a well made tallow shaving soap.

Tallow in a bath & body bar soap is also hard to beat. It creates a hard and creamy bar with excellent conditioning properties. Many experienced soap makers profess quite a love for a tallow based bar soap, myself included. However you will find the majority of artisan bar soaps made with all vegetable oils and butters due to the dynamics of that particular market, again, myself included. It seems that most consumers of artisan bar soaps are more of a "all natural/vegan/vegetarian" crowd and they balk at seeing beef tallow on the ingredient list.

I'm gearing up to a release a line of tallow based bath & body soaps as I can't ignore the wonderful qualities of a tallow based soap any longer. I plan to combat the stigma somewhat by using the term, "sodium tallowate" on my ingredient label. Of course I won't be marketing this as a vegan/vegetarian soap.

Again this just a personal preference but I consider myself firmly in the "Yes, I love tallow soaps" camp!

+1
I am looking forward to your new soaps.

(08-16-2014, 07:51 AM)BriDroid Wrote: I tend to go for tallow based soaps. They just seem to perform better for me. I still have non-tallow based soaps, so I'm not a tallow snob.

The tallow version of Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet shaving soap is IMHO out of this world! So sad that it is no longer being produced. The currently available reformulation is OK but no where near the same.

I'm kinda new to wet shaving - about 5 months in - and only have one vegan soap (HTGAM, "The Beach!"). It was like my second soap purchase. It's really aggravating to me because it might be my favorite scent in my collection, but the thing irritates my face to no end! I don't know if its because it's vegan or not, but my next 3 or 4 purchases have all been tallow-based. I don't want to spend more money on a soap that's going to give me an uncomfortable shave.

(08-18-2014, 09:41 AM)Songwind Wrote: I went with "They're okay" because there wasn't a more positive ambivalent response available.

Both tallow and non-tallow soaps have excellent and crappy examples.

+1.

I like Mystic Water and Stirling soaps, and they have tallow in them; I'm also a huge fan of the new Beer Soap Brewing Company non-tallow soaps, as well as the RazoRock argan-oil soaps that have no tallow.